One idea suggested by Buglamp is that, hey, Scholo is a school of necromancy, so maybe Lilian is going there to investigate her undead state, or dig up more information about it / possible cures? Who knows!

Of course, the inclusion of Lilian excites me, but also makes me terrified that the story won't live up to my expectations. Please, please, Blizzard, don't let me down!

Killing Garrosh

Whoa, this is unexpected. I have to be honest, I'm kinda floored by this, especially considering the current Garrosh. I mean, people don't like him, and people don't really want him to be Warchief...but he DEFINITELY hasn't done anything to warrant actual death, especially not at the hands of the Horde. Something HUGE is going to have to go down sometime in Mists to make the Horde - especially his diehard orc fans - want to see him dead.

What might it be? Well, there's the whole Theramore destruction thing. Without question, that's going to be motivation enough for the Alliance to want his head. But I really don't see that pissing off the Horde - at WORST, he does something cowardly or disgraceful in the orcs' eyes. Enough to dislike him, but definitely not enough to deserve death.

The standard guess is that it involves demon blood, the Sha, or the Burning Legion. I've already written a theory about Garrosh and why he might drink demon blood, so I'll just leave you with the link if you want to read it.

But to piss off the orcs...man, it has to be something horrible. Drinking demon blood would definitely fit the bill, as the orcs might be like, hold on now, we remember what happens here, and we don't like it, not even from you Big G. Playing off their racial history would be one way to lose their support. Another similar idea could involve the Fel Orcs, either by absolving them for all the bad stuff they've done, or actively recruiting them to be his honor guard or something. That probably wouldn't sit well, especially with older orcs who probably don't like their fel brethren too much anymore.

Something else that would work would be killing someone universally revered. But who would fit the bill? Who would be beloved by the orcs enough to make them actually want to depose and kill their hero?

Thrall is the only person I can think of whose death might upset the orcs - after all, even if they didn't necessarily think he was the best Warchief, the orcs have a HUGE amount of respect and love for the son of Durotan, for all he did for them. Garrosh taking out Thrall - no idea why this would happen, mind you - MIGHT be enough to turn the orcs against him. It would also have the added benefit of giving Jaina even MORE motivation to take him down - vengeance is an ugly trait, but avenging her city and avenging her dear friend is admirable (and we'd get to see her be a badass!)

But other than Thrall? Who would the orcs even care about? They wouldn't really care if he took out a neutral leader like Darion Mograine or Tirion, or Malfurion, or even an Aspect, depowered or not. Killing a Horde leader in a dishonorable, cowardly fashion MIGHT make the orcs angry, if it weren't for the fact that every other Horde leader is already on bad terms with Garrosh to begin with (well, Baine, Vol'jin and Sylvanas are).

There's a lot of time between now and Mists' final content patch, but I have to say, I'm really scratching my head right now wondering what Garrosh's unforgivable actions will be. I honestly don't think many "war crimes" would actually make his orc groupies withdraw their support, unless it was something unthinkably bad like eating babies or something. And let's be serious - Garrosh is a lot of things, but he is NOT a monster. Not yet, anyway...

Also, Orgrimmar as a raid is a weird concept. But hey, maybe we'll go into the Orgrimmar arena to take him out, and we'll have him on the ropes, and then he'll smash the floor and we'll fall deep down into the earth into the hidden secret and long-anticipated Azjol-Nerub raid instance where he rides Anub'arak around and continues the fight.

HOW AWESOME WOULD THIS BE.

Scarlet Monastery

Ahh, here's what I cared most about. And we learned...basically nothing.

Well, that's not true. We did get a brief walkthrough video showing off the new Monastery. Looks like the Scarlets have gone through some huge gear upgrades, sporting crazy Ulduar swords and stuff.

And bosses! We saw...well, some familiar faces, some new ones.

Here's...Doan? He looks frightening. Definitely looks more frightful than the old guy buried in his books.

Herod is gone, replaced by Armsmaster Harlan. That's interesting. Wonder what happened to Herod...oh well. Judging from some Mists achievements, Harlan is going to have similar moves, such as Blades of Light. As for who he is? No clue. I'm guessing it's not the only other currently-existing Harlan in WoW, Harlan Bagley, a level 12 cloth supplier in Stormwind.

Also of note? You fight Harlan in the Scarlet Sanctuary, not the Hall of Champions as it was formerly known. Intriguing.

Hmm, who is this now? He's standing where Scarlet Commander (Renault) Mograine was...but he doesn't really *look* like Renault. Then again, I suppose it could be an...older, grey-haired Renault? In entirely different armor. Hm.

SIDENOTE: I want Harlan and maybe-Renault's boots for transmog, so bad.

And finally, there's Whitemane. Now this is curious. She looks exactly the same? Every boss we saw in the video had a brand new appearance, except Whitemane. This strikes me as suspicious. I mean, we don't actually know that the other bosses are their old selves, but this is definitely Whitemane, unchanged. I wonder if she's actually dead, or a ghost?

DAMMIT WHY WAS THERE NOT MORE SCARLET INFO. I am so curious, aughhh! Are we going to see Joseph? What about Dominic? Is that actually Renault and Doan? Why is Whitemane still the same? So many questions!

And those are my major thoughts on the press release info, at least pertaining to the things I care about.

On Garrosh, it looks like the Sha, which are powered by negative emotions, can corrupt people. Wow Insider said this happens to a boss in Temple of the Jade Serpent. So Garrosh, who is not really an evil orc but certainly one with lots of negative emotions, might become corrupted by an especially powerful Sha and then head back to Orgrimmar, and then the people who were on Pandaria (us) have to go and deal with him.

Also, I don't know if it's stated outright that we will be killing Garrosh. It's possible that getting possessed by a Sha and wrecking Orgrimmar might be enough for him to give up the title of Warchief, especially if Thrall makes a cameo.

I don't know that the Orcs are turning on Garrosh. The title of the alleged final patch ("Siege of Orgrimmar") implies (to me) that the entire Orc faction is under siege - they stand with their leader.

From an Alliance perspective, Garrosh has done plenty to warrant death, but it does seem odd from a Horde perspective. My first thought was that Sylvannas might lead the assault (the two don't exactly see eye-to-eye) but that would mean the Tauren and Trolls somehow backing Sylvannas.

I really hope Garrosh jumps into the Abyss willingly with his eyes wide open. No being a corrupted, manipulated puppet by some vague, outside force -- if both the Horde and the Alliance are driven to taken him out, then he has to cross the Moral Event Horizon of his own free will.

My money's on Garrosh getting possesed by the Shah, and offing Saurfang, although, to be honest, I would prefer if they used Thrall. Actually, scratch that, I'd prefer if they actually developed Garrosh's character rather than using him as a device to ramp up hostilities between the Alliance and the Horde without getting Green Jesus' hands dirty. But they seem intent on having Garrosh follow in his father's blood stained footprints.

I know you like Blizzard's story, but the Garrosh thing is why I can't stand their storytelling. I don't know why they would possibly have told us something we don't need to know for at least a year and a half. Hint at Garrosh being extra crazy in quests, show us Baine and Voljin meeting with the night elves about the craziness. Make us really not like him. Don't just tell us! That's terrible. Big Bear Butt was right about this. Where's the surprise going to be now? Imagine the cinematic for patch 5.3 (or whatever) showing us the planning between the Horde and Alliance faction leaders. That would be great. Now, it's just, when are we killing Garrosh. Ho hum.

@Renaissance Man - I agree. I'm surprised they're writing off Garrosh so quickly? But then again - it is WAY early,and perhaps we'll see exactly this during the events of Mists. Development and exploration of him as a character, him being a serious influence into the Alliance/Horde war...etc. I mean, let's face it - the current Garrosh does NOT fit the bill of raid boss, no way. So there HAS to be significant things planned for him down the line.

@stiubhart - I agree, as well! I am a little surprised they told us who the final boss would be, as it DOES take away that "Holy shit, omg!" moment. But then again, I guess we're simply getting it now instead of then. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but it's more of a "Well, okay, I guess this is what's happening, let's think about possibilities now" kind of mindset.

On the other hand, perhaps they felt they needed that sense of known finality? I mean, look at all the backlash they got when it was announced that Mists would not have any sort of Arthas/Deathwing-type major villain. Maybe they felt they needed a known "endcap" sort of figurehead to tie things together, even if he's not the boss of the entire expansion, but one content patch.

I'm with Grimmtooth here... there's no reason why most orcs, the most populous race in the horde, wouldn't choose to stand with Garrosh against their (former) allies in the horde if Garrosh completely closes Orgrimmar off from the other races.

One suspects that's all it would take. While the other races do have their own issues that they'd prefer to deal with rather than squandering resources on an escalating conflict with the alliance - likely the cause of Garrosh severing ties - they all still see value in the Horde, even Sylvanas. So if Garrosh severed ties, the rest of the horde would probably at least want Orgrimmar back.

@Grimmtooth @Leit - I don't think they could really possibly pit *all of the orcs* against the rest of the players...think of what a disastrous mess that would be for actual orc players! I think, as it stands, yes, absolutely, many orcs WOULD stand with Garrosh, no matter what. And that's why I really think he's going to do something so horrible that *even* the orcs who love him so dearly turn their backs on him.

It's sorta for meta reasons, but I just really can't see putting an entire player race in such a position. It would really be frustrating, as an orc character.

@Anon - She definitely might be in SM still! They never said she wouldn't be, but I didn't see her in the video. I absolutely HOPE she is there, don't get me wrong! I do think it might be a little weird for her to be in both instances, though - they really don't do that very often, except for like Nozdormu in the Soulroics, but that's basically just to give you quests, not participate.

@rades - I think the 'let's look at the possibilities' idea is the problem. It's likely that Garrosh will be corrupted, like Arthus and Deathwing both were before him, except now that we will see it in game. Or, as I think is more likely, in a book. This kind of thing is what drives me crazy about Blizzard's storytelling. It ruins the ending and takes away any enjoyment of the process, since it's an inevitable march towards a known subject. So, not only is how he becomes the bad guy a rehash of earlier bad guys, but we don't even get the interest of guessing if he will actually go all the way bad or not. He will.

In WOWInsider's round up of blue posts Monday, a response to why reveal the end boss was brought up. Basically, the blue said that it would probably be leaked anyway, so they just decided to let it out. What a crap reason. It seems to me more likely that they wanted to be able to point there when Theramore is destroyed. 'See, you have something awesome coming for your faction! You aren't left behind in story again!'

Also, if you haven't already, check out spinksville's blog (spinksville.wordpress.com). It's an interesting take on the Garrosh news.